The overriding issue? The president’s integrity — and his respect for the law.

Or lack thereof.

To wit:

Major defense contractors — fearing huge Pentagon spending cuts set to take effect automatically Jan. 2, absent some new federal budget deal — recently announced plans to notify thousands of employees that they stand to be laid off.

Under federal law, you see, dismissal notices must be sent out no less than 60 days before planned layoffs — just before Election Day, in other words.

Compounding the problem: Many of those workers live in Virginia — a swing state that Obama is heavily counting on.

What to do?

The Labor Department ordered the contractors to simply ignore the law and not issue layoff notices based on “uncertainty.”

But when the contractors balked, Team Obama threw in a nice, fat cash incentive — paid for by the taxpayers.

It announced that any companies that are later sued and found in court to have violated the law will be reimbursed for their salary and liability costs — provided they don’t send out any layoff notices.

Coercion? Followed by bribery? Not surprisingly, most contractors signed on.

This story — like the unfolding revelations about how Obama & Co. mishandled the Libya consulate attack — goes to the heart of what’s at stake in this election.

And to why Romney needs to take charge and refocus his message if he means to regain momentum for the final stretch.

Obama’s campaign has been trying to lower expectations by pretending the president — despite his obvious communications skills — isn’t much of a debater.

That’s nonsense. But it underscores the magnitude of Romney’s task; he needs to focus the voters on the economy and Obama’s foreign-policy failures.